As salamu alaykum sister,

Shokran for writing to us with your most important concern.  Often times as children are exposed to different lifestyles and settings when they get older they may pick up bad behaviors or habits.  Your son is hoping just experimenting and it has not become a habit yet.  I know of some people who used to swear all the time and wished they could stop.  They said it took much effort and conscious thinking on their part to cut out the bad habit.

Insha’Allah, your son is just experimenting.  As he is seven years old, he has found something that gets him attention!  While it is not good attention, it is attention nonetheless.  When our children swear, we as parents cant help but be shocked and react.  However I would kindly suggest that you sit with him and ask him if he knows swearing is bad (yes), does he know he is forbidden to swear (yes).   I would further explain that as he knows it is bad and he knows it is forbidden, you will  give him a consequence for every swear word.  Here is where you can be creative.  If he has any monies from chores, allowance etc. you can tell him you will take x amount from his money for every swear word.  If he collects marbles or a certain toy, you will take one toy/marble for each time he swears.  If playing games or watching TV is his thing, you can cut his playing time per swear word.  Insha’Allah, he will soon learn that your main reaction will be a loss of something he enjoys.

You may wish to keep a jar and put in a fold little paper for each time he swears to keep count as well as to show him a visual of all his swear words.  You can also keep count on a chalkboard or other methods if you chose.  By visualizing the number of times he swears and looses things, you can also show him how his swearing is decreasing (insha’Allah)  and give him a reward when the number reaches below a certain number.  Of course the goal is for him to stop swearing and insha’Allah by negative losses every time he swears as well as reducing the attention he receives it will pass.  You may also want to read him stories (age appropriate) about our beloved Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and how joyful and loving his character was, to show as an example of how he might want to be-and why.

With patience and persistence sister soon your soon will outgrow this bad language.  At this age it may be just an attention seeking behavior or he might just be testing his boundaries, either way, I kindly suggest that you address his ‘potty” mouth with negative consequences as well as reward him with positive attention for stopping/decreasing his swear iA.  Your issue dear sister is a common one but can be resolved insha’Allah.  We wish you the best!